Arts Plus. Opera.

Verdi's Unexpected Drama

Understudy `Aida' Rises Quickly To Occasion

Tenor Johannsson Revels In Role Of Radames

January 12, 1995|By John von Rhein, Tribune Music Critic.

Those attending Lyric Opera's performance of "Aida" Tuesday at the Civic Opera House expecting only one major cast change heard two: tenor Kristjan Johannsson, taking over the role of Radames, found himself with a new Aida, Ellen Shade, just minutes before curtain time. Verdi's opera was nothing so dramatic (or melodramatic) as the cliffhanger backstage.

The scheduled Aida, soprano Aprile Millo, told company officials as the performance was about to begin that she didn't feel her high notes were secure enough and that she could not sing. Fortunately Shade, Millo's understudy, was attending the performance, having been put on permanent alert for the run of the show. (She had already taken over the title role after Millo canceled Dec. 17.) She was rushed into makeup and costume while Lyric held the curtain for 20 minutes. A spokesman announced to the audience that "illness" prevented Millo from going on.

Given the nail-biter taking place in the wings, it was rather a wonder the performance came off as well as it did.

Johannsson may be a dramatic cipher, but he has the true Italianate tenore robusto sound, powerful and plangent and effortless, and that is all that matters in "Aida." Trumpeting his high notes in a stentorian manner to rival the Lyric's trumpet section, the Icelandic tenor reveled in the clarion ring he produced for "Celeste Aida." Too bad he chose to belt out that aria's high B-flat in the time-dishonored tradition; not that anyone was complaining.

Shade has logged distinguished service to Lyric for nearly two decades in eight different roles.

She sang conscientiously and carefully Tuesday. She saved the day under trying circumstances and for that earned everyone's gratitude.

But there was no denying Aida is a difficult stretch for a singer now past her prime. For most of the evening her middleweight soprano was afflicted with a pronounced beat. She made a valiant attempt at Aida's killer aria, "O patria mia," faltering on the first high C before regaining it. The Aida-Amneris scene, where the vocal demands weren't so strenuous, came off best. Shade's acting was gentle but too restrained for so passionate a heroine.

Besides Johannsson, the evening's other upholder of old-fashioned Verdi vocal tradition was mezzo Dolora Zajick as Amneris. She may have been in marginally less gleaming voice than she was last December, and a few pitches were problematic.

But she delivered the vocal goods with a steady, laserlike intensity that earned her some of the loudest applause.

John Fiore's conducting yielded a more cohesive musical panorama than before, finding the fusion of lyrical expansion and rhythmic urgency that had proved elusive opening night. The orchestra and chorus sounded alertly motivated.